Trip Report: Tobago February 2013

In late January-February 2013 my girlfriend and I spent a week staying at the Grand Magdalena hotel on Tobago, with several excursions to see the island's varied wildlife, including a day-trip to neighbouring Trinidad. I've previously travelled to both the Caribbean and Central/South America, and found Tobago to be a charming mix of the two, calypso culture meets tropical birding.

We'd booked the Grand Magdalena over some other similarly priced hotels as it boasts extensive grounds including a golf course and mangrove swamp, which suggested that there was some good birding to be had. The first bit of wildlife we encountered wasn't a bird though, instead the water hazards for the golf course had a healthy population of Spectacled Caimans!

Bringing new meaning to the term Water Hazard!

We soon found some more feathery fare though, Carib Grackles, Bananaquits, Eared Doves and Black-faced Grassquits were near ubiquitous, with the Grackles making several determined efforts to raid the breakfast buffet each morning. In addition to Caiman, the water bodies held Least Grebe, American Purple Gallinules, Anhingas and Wattled Jacana amongst others. A freshly fledged family of the latter was a highlight, think lapwing chicks on stilts!

Wattled Jacana

The golf course itself proved to be a popular roosting area for around a hundred Southern Lapwings, as well as the inevitable groups of Cattle Egrets. Venturing further across the hotel grounds, Tropical Kingbirds and Northern Mockingbirds were frequently encountered , whilst Yellow-crowned Night-Herons combed the beach at dusk. Copper-rumped Hummingbirds were the only regularly seen hummers, although a female Black-throated Mango did make a brief appearance one afternoon.

Southern Lapwings

In the famed mangrove swamp, the boardwalk was looking a bit the worse for wear, and acted as an excellent roost site for large numbers of bats! Birds were hard to see in the dense stands of mangroves, but we found several Hudsonian Whimbrels and Spotted Sandpipers feeding on the mud, accompanied by skittish Northern Waterthrushes. The boardwalk led out to a viewpoint overlooking the sea, and a somewhat surprised Osprey which rapidly departed the scene. A few minutes later the first Yellow-headed Caracara of the trip flew over, and several more spotted sandpipers were seen feeding around the edge of the mangroves. The big ticket bird for the mangroves was the suitably named Mangrove cuckoo, and after a couple of fruitless trips we finally found one moving quietly through the branches.

The hotel wasn't just good for birds, plenty of flowering plants and long vegetation meant that there were lots of butterflies around as well, and I spent a happy hour or two chasing them around. Hanno and Cassius' Blue were common, as were White and Red Peacocks, and some dazzling Gulf Fritillaries. There were also several skippers including the endearing Brown Longtail and appropriately named Whirlabout, along with lots of small yellow butterflies which I haven't managed to identify yet.

Hanno Blue

Gulf Fritillary

White Peacock

Brown Longtail

Butterflies didn't keep centre stage for long though, as I followed them around I ended up close to a large hedge through which a mixed flock started passing through, with most of the birds ignoring me entirely meaning that I was able to take some shots with my macro lens still attached. The flock included Brown Flycatchers, Southern House Wrens, Red-crowned Woodpeckers and Barred Antshrike, all of which fed within metres of me!

Southern House Wren

Brown Flycatcher

We did eventually leave the hotel, having booked three excursions with Newton George, who turned out to be an exceptional bird guide, both in terms of his knowledge of the island's flora and fauna, and his determination to ensure that we saw as much of it as possible. Before our excursions left the hotel however, we had one final area to explore, the attractive sounding sewage settling ponds! These proved to be remarkably odour free, and full of birds, over a couple of visits we found: Smooth-billed Ani, Masked Duck, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Lesser Yellowlegs, Least Grebe, Green Heron and more Jacanas and Gallinules.

Our first excursion was to the central rainforests of Tobago, the first rainforests to be designated as a protected area, thanks to a far-sighted Frenchman in the 18th century. We got off to a good start, with one of the first birds we saw being the stunning Ruby Topaz hummingbird, a fiery shimmer of red and gold. The hummingbird list grew rapidly, with White-necked Jacobin, Rufous-breasted Hermit and Black-throated Mango all seen well. Our first stop was to view a massive flowering tree which had attracted a wide variety of species, including Blue-gray Tanagers, Shiny and Giant Cowbirds, Orange-winged Parrots and some impossibly blue Red-legged Honeycreepers. Clattering noises from the undergrowth announced the arrival of the (somewhat surprising) national bird of Tobago, Rufous-vented Chachalacas, whilst on the roadside we saw the first of many Blue-Crowned Motmots and Rufous-tailed Jacamars.

Blue-Crowned Motmot

Driving further up the road we set off for a short walk through the rainforest encountering numerous birds along the way. Highlights included a showy Collared Trogon and a distinctly more secretive Blue-backed Manakin, before we encountered our first White-tailed Sabrewing, a large and impressive hummingbird found in Tobago and parts of South America, but strangely absent from Trinidad. Picking up American Redstart, Scrub Greenlet, Rufous-breasted Wren and Plain Antvireo along the way we made our way back to the minibus, and drove a short distance down the road to a small layby where a few hummingbird feeders had been set-up.

Rufous-tailed Jacamar

Here we enjoyed watching Bananaquits and White-lined Tanagers feeding alongside some of the hummingbirds seen earlier, whilst a couple of White-tipped Doves observed from the trees above. I then set off to try to get some photos of a showy Jacamar, only to discover on my return that I'd missed a mixed flock passing through! Fortunately I hadn't missed anything too exciting, and a soaring Great Black Hawk was further consolation before we headed back to the hotel.

White-tailed Sabrewing

The next day was a non-birding excursion, as our hotel was on the Atlantic coast, and so lacked the standard Caribbean white-sand beach, a free bus was laid on to Pigeon Point. Here, as at any coastal location on Tobago, Brown Pelicans were common, and were joined roosting on moored boats by a single Cabot's Tern. We decided to take a glass bottomed boat out onto the reef and the nylon pools. As soon as we got to the reef we were greeted by a friendly French Damselfish, called Bobby according to the boat owner! The reef itself was obviously not in the best of health, large areas of coral had bleached and died, but there were still good numbers of fish to see.

Boat with resting seabirds

Bobby!

Birds were back on the agenda properly the next day, with a trip to Little Tobago island with Newton. As our hotel was the other end of the island from Little Tobago, it was around an hour's drive to get there, but Newton made the most of it by diverting to a regular site for Blue-backed Manakin. Sure enough, within minutes of arriving one of these delightful birds was displaying in front of us - magic!

Male Blue-backed Manakin

On arrival at the Blue Waters Inn which stands opposite little tobago, we were treated to the somewhat incongruous sight of a small flock of turnstones running along the white sand beach. The boat trip itself was largely uneventful and we soon disembarked onto little tobago. After a short steep climb, during which we saw Brown-crested Flycatchers, Blue-crowned Motmot and Rufous-breasted Hermit we reached the old ranger station. From here we watched Crested Oropendulas and a Tropical Mockingbird before taking the trails further on. From her the sides of the footpaths were studded with Red-billed Tropicbird nests, with some birds sitting no more than a few feet into the forest. Newton also showed us an Audubon's Shearwater's burrow, and the large fluffy chick which was resting within.

Red-billed Tropicbird chick

The trail ended at a cliff top viewpoint from which there was a spectacular view of dozens of tropicbirds riding the thermals and returning to their nests. They were harassed by marauding Magnificent Frigatebirds, which tried to steal the tropicbirds' hard earned catch before they could reach land. The skies were also full of Brown Boobies and smaller numbers of Red-footed Boobies, whilst in the ocean far below a couple of Hawksbill Turtles floated close to the surface.

Brown Booby

Red-footed Booby

Red-billed Tropicbird

After a brief diversion to do a stop of snorkelling, we headed back to the mainland and the drive back to the hotel, knowing that the next day would be starting early as we took a dawn flight to Trinidad.

The contrast between the sister islands is startling, Tobago is a sleepy island with around 50,000 inhabitants, where the main industry is tourism. Trinidad dwarfs Tobago, with a population well over a million and the bustling capital of Port-of-Spain founded around the oil industry. The first new bird of the day came as soon as we left the airport, Gray-breasted Martins roosting in the front of the building. We then set off for the world famous Asa Wright lodge, and after becoming reacquainted with the concept of traffic, arrived by mid-morning.

Here the birding was about as relaxing as it came, relaxing on a verandah with a spectacular view over a tropical garden full of feeders, with rainforest just beyond. One bird I was very keen to see was the funky looking Tufted Coquette, and amazingly, the first bird to buzz into view was a stunning male, complete with orange quiff and emerald spangled orange whiskers. Other hummingbirds included most of the species seen on Tobago, and also Blue-chinned Sapphire and White-chested Emerald. Bananaquits, Green and Purple Honeycreepers also enjoyed the hummingbird feeders whilst in the trees beyond there were a range of tanagers and flycatchers, including Bay-headed Tanager, Silver-beaked Tanager, Blue Dacnis, Olive-sided Flycatcher and Ochre-bellied Flycatcher.

Female Purple Honeycreeper

Bananaquit

Our second trogon of the trip came in the form of a perched Amazonian White-tailed Trogon, whilst raptors included Common Black Hawk, Great Black Hawk, Gray Hawk, White Hawk, Double-toothed Kite and Black Hawk-Eagle. Several impressive but as yet unidentified butterflies fluttered around the gardens, and Golden Tegu lizards picked up the scraps of fruit dropped by the birds.

Golden Tegu

After around an hour on the verandah we set off for a walk through the rainforest, heading towards the discordant clanging of a lek of Bearded Bellbirds. We stopped at a lek site for White-bearded Manakin, and after several half glimpses got some good views of the males. Further along we came across a more colourful relative, the neon topped Golden-headed Manakin. Whilst watching the latter a couple of Turquoise Tanagers also showed up - tropical birding at its finest! We eventually dragged ourselves away and made it to the bellbirds, the noise was deafening, but the birds themselves were not easy to see, sitting high up in the canopy until one cooperative male dropped into a smaller tree and showed nicely.

Male Bearded Bellbird

After getting our fill of the bellbirds, we headed back to the lodge, picking up some more nice birds along the way. A Lineated Woodpecker was an impressive sight, whilst a slightly confused Common Potoo was uncharacteristically easy to see, perched out in the open. We also had good views of the dazzlingly blue Morpho butterflies, although spotting them once they'd landed and deployed their camouflaged underwings proved a challenge.

Common Potoo

Our next stop was at the Yerette hummingbird gardens, situated in a suburb of Port-of-Spain, and not obviously a great birding location, but probably the best location for hummingbirds on either island. 13 of the 17 Trinidadian species have been seen there, and 10 put in an appearance during our visit. Some species were abundant, and the overall effect was of a buzzing, shimmering maelstrom of constant activity.

The full list for the gardens was: Little Hermit, Long-billed Starthroat, White-chested Emerald, Blue-chinned Sapphire, Tufted Coquette, Black-throated Mango, Copper-rumped Hummingbird, Rufous-breasted Hermit, Ruby Topaz and White-necked Jacobin. Other birds included Yellow Oriole and Southern Rough-winged Swallow, whilst a Royal Firetip butterfly vied with the hummingbirds with its beauty.

Male Tufted Coquette

Copper-rumped Hummingbird

White-necked Jacobin

Royal Firetip

Dragging ourselves away from Yerette, we got in the car for the short car journey to the Caroni Swamp, unfortunately Trinidad's rush hour was now underway, and the motorway was doing a good impression of the M25 on a Friday night. Eventually we arrived at our destination, and while we were waiting for the boat to arrive saw a number of new birds for the trip. Tricoloured Herons joined Snowy Egrets and Little Blue Herons on the sandbanks, whilst on the water small parties of Blue-winged Teal were swimming. A pair of Pied Water Tyrants was doing a fine job of keeping the mosquito population down, aided by a Great Kiskadee.

Once we'd got on the boat we didn't have to wait long for more good birds, with a Greater Ani flashing across the channel and into the mangroves, before we navigated our way carefully below a rather large Cook's Tree Boa! Further along we got a fleeting glimpse of a Green-throated Mango and more typical views of another Common Potoo, before a pair of Red-capped Cardinals showed rather better and a Yellow-headed Caracara flew over.

Cook's Tree Boa

The main event of the evening was yet to come though, and we emerged from the mangroves into a larger body of water, where several other boats had moored. We were all waiting for Scarlet Ibis to return from a day feeding in neighbouring Venezuela to roost in a small patch of mangroves. At first they came in ones and twos, but soon the flocks were counted in the tens, and then, stunningly, in the hundreds as the evening sky filled with vivid red. The mangrove stand resembled a christmas tree hung with red and white baubles and the birds were still coming in as we set off for home. It was an amazing and memorable day, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone travelling to Tobago.





The bird list for the trip ended up at 121, with a large number of them being lifers, but the sight which will live longest in my memory is the scarlet skeins of ibis filling the evening sky. Tobago was a superb place both for a holiday and for birding, and I'm sure we'll end up going back there again some day.